Tag Archives: Maniac Mansion

Hey, Steve missed a couple weeks of doing these! Womp, womp, wompppppp. It was mostly because he was looking for new apartments, and also dealing with a time crunch because of the holidays. Going forward, we’re mostly going to focus on the news items. This is because most of the anniversaries, unfortunately, were already starting to repeat themselves. And on that note, herrreeeee is the news!

– Pretty much everyone shared this article with Steve on a mini-NES loaded with 30 games. My mini-review: Eh. It’s kind of steep at $59.99, and there’s no indication whether you can load more games on to it. (Note: Nintendo later told Kotaku that no, you can’t.) The HDMI hook-ups are nice, though. However, it feels like a missed opportunity for the Big N. By offering a viable alternative to emulators – like a device that allowed for game downloads, using your old carts and third-party support – they could have taken a nice chunk away from that market.

– A fox takes a Playstation controller from a house and drops it in a garden. Video!

– From Kotaku’s Patrick Klepek, and some other sites, the Saturn’s copy protection has finally been cracked.

– WWF War Zonecame out for the Playstation in 1998. Developed by Iguana West and published by Acclaim, it got pretty decent reviews, but tends to be overshadowed by other, better games.

– This was a popular time of year for NCAA Football games to come out, as 2005, 2009 and 2011 editions came out between July 13 and July 15. Unfortunately, the series is now defunct, as EA Sports couldn’t come to an agreement with some NCAA members.

– Tales of Symphoniacame out for the Gamecube on July 13, 2004. It was later ported to the PS2, and then an expanded version came out for the PS3. Namco is now up to seemingly 700 different Tales games, by the way.

– The best read of the week, and one close to my heart, is a long piece from Ernie Smith of Tedium on commercial mascots and their video games. Featured prominently are the Noid and M.C. Kids, of course, along with other lesser known items like a Doom-engine Chex game.

– Hardcore Gamer’s Marcus Estrada has a neat, informative little piece on the Doctor V64, which was a knockoff Nintendo 64 development kit. Read about it on their site.

– Live in Arizona, and want to play classic video games? You’re in luck! The Daily Courier has a business profile on Black Box Gaming, which allows you to lounge and play vidya games. Read about the cool little store here, in a story by Max Efrein.

– Boooo: Sounds like an automated FOX filter to take down their content on YouTube “accidentally” took down a clip of some dudes playing Double Dribble. Why? Well, because Family Guy used that clip in an episode. And, the show didn’t credit the brothers either. Read about it on IGN.

– Historically, May 26 hasn’t been especially great for games, but the first installment in the inFamousseries came out on this day in 2009. The Playstation-exclusive series combined open-world gaming with superhero powers, and it was generally well-received.

– The NES version of The Lion Kingcame out only in Europe on May 25, 1995. Yes, new NES games were still being made in 1995! Although, this was indeed the last release for Europe. It’s probably for the best, as Westwood Studios’ effort wasn’t all that good.

This week in Your Parents Basement, we are pointing and clicking our way through a creepy house as we try to save our girlfriend with plastic fruit, exploding hamsters and a Weird Edsel! From 1987 and 1990, we’re playing Maniac Mansion by Lucasfilm Games (the predecessor to LucasArts) for the PC and NES.

You can manually download this week’s weird podcast here or subscribe to the show via the iTunes store. To manually subscribe, use this link in the device / podcast player of choice. You can also follow us on Twitter, or ‘like’ us on Facebook.

As always, if you like the show, support us by buying from Amazon! You can use this link to go to Amazon, and any purchase you make will kick a couple bucks to the show, with no extra cost to you. It’s a win-win!

0:00 – Intro, which is tentacle and Edison family theme from Maniac Mansion. You can find a full soundtrack on YouTube here. And also, for today’s show, we’re joined by special guest DJ!

44:45 – Emails! What’s our favorite Tetris piece? Who would write our theme songs? What about games based on TV game shows? Altavista???

1:11:30 – A snifferoo from next week’s show, which is another LucasArts game! Huzzah!

SHOW NOTES

– According to Price Charting, Maniac Mansion has held its value well, as a cult classic. Loose carts of the NES version go for about $19, with the price swelling to $80 for the box and manual, to $222 for “new” copies. The PC version starts at around $30, although it’s also available in digital-only formats for much cheaper.

– Also, as mentioned on the show, the sequel, Day of the Tentacle, has been re-released. It’s going for about $15 on the PS4 and PC. The game does have a really neat Easter egg though – The original Maniac Mansion is playable in full on a computer in the game.

– Also also as mentioned on the show, the Japanese Maniac Mansion looks like a weird tech demo for the NES. Check it out here. And, the TV show is viewable here.

– Wanna read one of the oldest things on the internet, kind of? Wired has an article from Douglas Crockford, who worked on Maniac Mansion for LucasArts. It’s the longform article DJ was talking about, and you can find it here. It’s a really interesting read on what they had to take out of the game.

This week in Your Parents Basement, we’re back to our regular episodes! We’re shootin’ at trolls, mages and everything but werewolves in a weird noir game. From Beam Software and released in 1993, we’re playing Shadowrun for the Super Nintendo.

You can manually download this week’s dark, grimy, edgy podcast here or subscribe to the show via the iTunes store. To manually subscribe, use this link in the device / podcast player of choice. You can also follow us on Twitter, or ‘like’ us on Facebook.

As always, if you like the show, support us by buying from Amazon! You can use this link to go to Amazon, and any purchase you make will kick a couple bucks to the show, with no extra cost to you. It’s a win-win! Want to have an email or comment read on the air? Send us a message on the ole Twitter or Facebook, or, shoot that mail to parentsbasementpodcast@gmail.com.

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 – Intro, which is the main theme from Shadowrun.

51:00 – The emails! Video game sidekicks and other fun things.

1:08:45 – A snifferoo from next week’s show. Don’t you dare close your eyes! It’s a whole new world.

SHOW NOTES

– If you like Dale’s contributions on the pod, be sure to check out his blog, Dale’s Video Backlog Blog! It also has the great address of daleisgreat.blogspot.com. (Steve heartily supports this, since his own, currently dormant blog is Stephen on Stuff.)

– There are actually three versions of Shadowrun, although the Super Nintendo one tends to get the most buzz. A Genesis version from 1994 is also well-reviewed, although more obscure, and there is a little played, Japanese-only version for the Sega CD. We mostly focused on the SNES game, but do mention the Genesis one in passing. All three are based on the Shadowrun tabletop RPG series, although they’re each different games and feature different stories.

– According to Price Charting, Shadowrun for the Super Nintendo costs about $47 for the loose cart, up to $310 for the cart, box and manual in pristine condition. This is probably because it’s well-regarded. The Genesis version is a bit cheaper, at $27 for just the cart, up to $175 for a ‘perfect’ copy. The new Shadowrun for PC only costs around $5 to $10. There is another version for the 360 that’s about $3 to $10.